FIRST minister Rhodri Morgan yesterday said there was “no General Galtieri figure” to save Gordon Brown in a bizarre attempt to defend the beleaguered Prime Minister.

The Welsh Assembly leader admitted Labour was struggling but said an autumn leadership challenge would be suicide.

Drawing on the Conservative’s rapid increase in popularity during the Falklands conflict he insisted the party could turn around its fortunes.

When asked if he was suggesting war was the only way of boosting Mr Brown’s rock-bottom poll ratings he said no, but added there was no one who could take on the mantle of General Galtieri, the Argentinean dictator who invaded the Falkland Islands in a BBC radio interview.

“I can remember in 1982 before the Falklands War Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives were in third place and then General Galtieri invaded the Falklands and the next thing we know she wins the biggest majority in history.

“No, we don’t have the General Galtieri. I don’t think we can do a staged invasion to make Gordon Brown popular.”

He added: “There are difficulties.

“To some extent you have to say does anybody in their right mind in the Labour party want a general election this autumn.

“That isn’t to say that Labour doesn’t have to move up a few gears at all and that Gordon doesn’t have to master this art of behaving in public the way he behaves in private where he is very charming, very communicative and full of jokes and laughter and so on.”

He added: “I don’t think anything will happen in the autumn because that would be suicide.”

It comes as Foreign Secretary David Miliband plunged the Prime Minister’s future into fresh doubt by refusing to slap down claims he will stand for leader.

The cabinet minister, a close ally of Tony Blair, was repeatedly invited to give his full backing to Gordon Brown and rule out a bid for the top job but ducked the issue on five occasions.

While praising the Prime Minister’s leadership for its “strong values” his carefully chosen words at the Press conference with Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, were seized upon in Westminster as an attempt to position himself to take over.

When asked to directly rule out a bid before the next election, he said: “How many times can I say that this is about argument, about issues, about a united Labour response?”

Mr Miliband also side-stepped a question over whether Labour would be “mad” to depose Mr Brown, insisting the “Labour Party never does mad things” and went on to decline to say Mr Brown was the only person who could lead the Government through the current economic turbulence.